Kyoko
Kyoko (京子, Kyouko?) is a Masou-Shoujo (ハルナ?) under Ariel. First introduced as a childhood friend of Orito, and a survivor of a serial killer attacks. As the series goes on, she is in fact, the serial killer herself. Appearance She has yellow hair which was made into twin pigtails, and has gold yellowish eyes. She was mostly seen in her Masou-Shoujo outfit. Personality Kyoko presents herself initially as a soft-voiced, gentle, and kind-hearted girl, albeit one overcoming physical injury along with psychological and emotional trauma. However, this turns out to be a mere facade, as Kyoko reveals herself to be a skillful practitioner of deception, easily being able to act and present herself in ways that do not reflect her true self. Once her charade ends, she reveals her actual personality, being that of a cruel, egotistical, and sadistic individual who takes great pleasure in killing other people and being involved in intense combat. When fully immersed in combat, she quickly enters into an almost manic, crazed state of mind, laughing hysterically and contorting her face in a pyschotic manner. She also possesses a rapid-fire, volatile temper. This can work against her, especially in situations in which she loses her advantages, and when her opponents or victims try to reason with her, especially in the context of normal ethics and morality. In addition to this repetoire of malevolent traits, she also has a strong fear of her own death. If she loses all of her extra lives, much of her power, and is subjected to prolonged, intense physical assault, she will lose her composure and degenerate into a trembling, fearful, and teary state. After her defeat at the hands of Ayumu Aikawa, her personality underwent a dramatic change, specifically during her extended struggle against Ariel and her eventual imprisonment following her second defeat. During the interrogation performed by Ariel, she showed some of her past traits, such as anger, tearful submission, and manic, psychopathic tendencies. Despite these examples, she displays the full change once she is able to gain a temporary parole to return to Earth. While in the company of Ayumu and his friends, despite her maneuvering and verbal antagonism towards Ayumu's friends, she made no attempt to harm anyone despite her behavior and verbal hostility. While displaying that she still had manic, psychopathic tendencies, she also makes clear that she had long since abandoned her bloodlust and impulsive urges to harm others, no matter how she behaved. She also admits that she had reflected on her past actions during her confinement, which indicates that she has learned the value of accountability and the need to be responsible for one's actions. Further examples of her newfound moral and even spiritual transformation were fully displayed when the true motive behind her return to Earth were revealed; she wanted to spend time with Ayumu, because she had fallen in love with him, and at the same time was willing to do what had to be done to make amends for her past crimes. In these and related aspects, she has become an entirely different person than who she had been before and during her partnership with the King of the Night. As evident during the mixer part she attended with Ayumu and his friends, she displayed the fact that she genuinely desired the company of others and even wanted to make and have friends, rather than seeing other people as means to an end or obstacles to eliminate. While still egotistical and cruel, she still employed restraint and even a begrudging respect for others, having made considerable progress in controlling her negative impulses. Finally, despite her continued half-deceptions and taunts, she reveals that she had undergone yet another personal transformation; she was engaged in a struggle to temper her inner demons, seeking to balance her genuine love for Ayumu with her parallel vengeful urges and the acceptance that she must take responsibility for her past actions and that she must not harm other beings. With these factors now in play, she reveals that she is beset with loneliness and despair over her current situation. Her true fear and source of sadness is that she will not be able to form any true relationships with others, and that no one will remember her not matter what she would do during her extensive incarceration. Moments before her return to Villiers, she swiftly and manically attacked Ayumu, impaling him through the stomach, but only did so because he had granted her permission to do so. After doing this, she tearfully confesses her true feelings, displaying her confusion over wanting both to hurt him and the fact that she loves him. Despite this, she decides instead to follow her positive impulses rather than her negative ones, displaying a genuine humanity that she had not done so before. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka OF THE DEAD - 02 - Large 36.jpg|Dai-sensei decided to punish Kyoko. Plot The Two Survivors Kyoko was in a nearby hospital supposedly recuperating from an attack from a recent string of serial killings. When Kyoko learned that Ayumu was Orito's friend, she asked repeatedly that Ayumu come and visit her. When he finally came to visit her, she was pleased, and at the request of Ayumu, she tied her hair into twin tails. Malicious Advances After a brief conversation, she alleges that the her assailant was a girl her age, whose description matched that of Eucliwood Hellscythe. This claim disturbed Ayumu, who had yet to learn of her extensive deception. She later attacks Ayumu after a Megalo named Cerberus Wansard informs Ayumu of the souls of the victims being sacrificed to a being known as the King of the Night. Later that night, Kyoko, having resumed her guise as a hospital patient, slits her throat, splashing blood on the bed she is laying on and the window's curtains. Given her ability to heal herself after reviving herself from death, she likely did this to heal the wounds that she had, which were also likely self-inflicted. The following day, she has left the hospital, and an injured, psychologically afflicted old woman is in her place, apparently having been there for a year. Kyoko later helps Ayumu in going out to buy tofu for Haruna's teacher, and Kyoko agrees to get it for him. They later meet in a nearby graveyard, where Kyoko makes false advances at Ayumu, leading him to drop his guard. It is at this point that she impales him a third time, revealing herself as the serial killer. Battle With the Rogue Masou-Shoujo She taunts Ayumu for the fact that she had attacked him three times, and allows him to figure out that she had orchestrated and enacted an elaborate charade, from the lie that she was Orito's childhood friend and Ayumu's classsmate, to the claim that she was the last survivor of her family and the serial killer's actions. Continuing this game, Kyoko plays along and reveals that she accomplished much of her deception by altering the memories of those around her, which leads to Ayumu realizing what she really is. She mockingly acknowledges this revelation, and proceeds to invoke the incantation that reveals her true nature: a Masou-Shoujo. She briefly comments on being unable to alter Ayumu's memory, which had been her real aim when they first met and she placed her right hand on his forehead. She then proclaims that by eliminating him for good will resolve her dilemma regarding him, and swiftly attacks him in a formidable assault. She continues to taunt Ayumu, also revealing the fact that she had sacrificed the souls of her victims to the King of the Night. As Ayumu handles this new set of facts, she halts him with a barrier, the same type that she had ensnared him with before. At this point, Haruna, who had been following Ayumu, intervenes and dispels the barrier. Seraphim arrives as well, leading to Kyoko becoming irritated. She notes that she had known Haruna back in Villies, but had disliked her, along with considering Haruna a failure as a student. After a brief exchange of insults, Seraphim moves forward to attack Kyoko, activating her vampire ninja powers, including the signature glowing red eyes. Kyoko is amused by this, stating that Seraphim's eyes are much like hers, and responds in kind, generating a visually identical effect and a cape in an identical style to which the Vampire-Ninjas use. Despite the aesthetic parallel, Seraphim confirms that Kyoko has gained such features through other means, and that she is not a Vampire Ninja, but possesses different powers. Seraphim attacks with her signature technique, which Kyoko deflects effortlessly, and retaliates with her own, being that of a blast of magical fire. She immediately knocks Seraphim aside, and generates two cyclones composed of a greyish-pink gas, which carries the same weakening and immobilizing effects as a Megalo's smog attack. Haruna notes this, and Ayumu promptly transforms, and joins Seraphim in a renewed assault against Kyoko. The three of them engage in a swift and furious battle, during which Ayumu is face to face with Kyoko as they try to repulse each other's weapons, and he asks her why she killed so many people. She sneers at this and explains that she had killed her victims and sacrificed their souls for the sake of gaining immortality, continues to mock him, and, despite his protests, she repulses him and captures him between her smog-vortices. She taunts him with possibilities of how she will tear him apart, in which he denounces these, grabs a hold of her, and activates 1000% of his Masou-Shoujo powers. Kyoko protests in vain for him to release her, which he refuses, and delivers his own taunt about her being beaten by pervert. Seraphim takes advantage of Kyoko's moment of surprise by initiating her signature sword technique, stabbing through Ayumu, and straight into Kyoko's chest. Stunned by this development, Kyoko stares ahead for a moment while Seraphim admonishes her, after which Kyoko's powers deactivates, and she falls lifelessly to the ground. While her opponents drop their guard after assuming victory, Kyoko revives herself and attacks Seraphim once again. This event reveals yet another ability of Kyoko's, which she prizes above all others, and the principle advantage of killing people and sacrificing their souls; she gains extra lives from the sacrifices. This ability not only allows her to revive herself in the event of death, but also to be able to rejoin severed body parts and regenerate any inflicted damage, not that dissimilar to a Zombie, though a gained life is lost in the process. She taunts her opponents once more, relating the fact that she has 10 lives left, and renews her assault. At this point, Eucliwood intervenes, takes Haruna and Ayumu's chainsaw, becomes a Masou-Shoujo herself, and engages Kyoko in battle. During the fight, Kyoko tries a wide variety of techniques, from fire-based energy attacks, to summoning lightning from the sky, and ultimately with spheres of concussive energy, which she enhances by overriding her living body's inherent limitations. She goes from 100% all the way up to 500%, tearing the skin and upper layers of flesh of her arms all the way up to the shoulders, and severely ravaging her body. Despite these fearsome attacks, Eucliwood is entirely unaffected due to her superior magic, armor, and overall power, and warns Kyoko to leave while she still can. Kyoko dismisses this, which causes Eucliwood to use one of her most fearsome powers; the killing effect of her words. She says 'die' to Kyoko five times, forcing her to revive herself for each word, and losing half of her ten lives. As the others look on in awe and shock, and Eucliwood recoils in pain with each word, Kyoko, who is further damaged and provoked into a frenzy, finds a solution to this problem. She pierces her eardrums to protect herself from Eucliwood's words, and knocks the necromancer unconscious with a powerful explosion, using her 5th life to revive and regenerate. She then turns her attention to Ayumu and his allies, repulses their attacks, impales herself, revives once again and regenerates, using her 4th life. Once again, Ayumu is forced to transform, but manages to weather Kyoko's assaults, and angers her enough so that she makes a crucial mistake, allowing Ayumu to destroy her sword, and dispel much of her magic. Now at a disadvantage, Kyoko vainly tries to repulse Ayumu as he advances towards her and makes an effort to tell her the moral and ethical consequences of her actions. She manages to briefly knock him down in an infuriated panick, but he catches her off-guard by bisecting her with the chainsaw at the waist. She uses her third remaining life to revive herself, rejoin her lower torso, and regenerate the inflicted damage. Immediately afterwards, she snarls at Ayumu in anger, who responds by activating his chainsaw and digs it into her for up to 16 seconds, which elicits screams of pain and agony from Kyoko. During this swift and brutal assault, Kyoko is forced to revive and regenerate herself even as she is being sawed apart, which eliminates her final two stolen lives. This attack leaves her with only one life; her own. At this point, she loses her courage and composure, and is reduced to crawling backward, trembling in terror, and tearfully begging for her life. He ignores her pleading, while giving her one last lecture before he moves to take final, decisive judgment upon her. He immediately punches at her face, generating a tremendous impact to the ground that rips up the surrounding surface in a large radius. After the dust settles, it is soon revealed that he did not punch her in the face, but rather immediately to the left of her head, which results in her being knocked unconscious rather than being killed. Though not stated, as the finishing act of her punishment, Ayumu wanted her to know what it felt like to both to feel the pain of death and the fear of one's own mortality. Once she would wake up, he wanted her to remember this for the rest of her life, for he has denied her of the satisfaction of immortality and the escape she would have if she died. While Ayumu and the others attend to Eucliwood, Dai-sensei arrives to retrieve the promised tofu and to take Kyoko back to their world, in order to reeducate her. Before she can do so, however, Kyoko wakes up and is suddenly possessed by a malevolent presence, attended by a black mist, who addresses Eucliwood. This presence is soon revealed to be the King of the Night, the one who Kyoko sacrificed the souls of her victims to in exchange for her repetoire of formidable powers. After a brief conversation with Dai-Sensei and Eucliwood, in which he deflects accusations that he corrupted Kyoko and states that what she did was by her own free will, he transports her away, with Dai-Sensei attempting to follow. Though Kyoko has not been seen since, she is mentioned briefly in a conversation between the King of the Night and Dai-Sensei in episode 9, where they discuss the nature of a weapon that appeared from within Maelstrom. The King of the Night mentions that Kyoko had discussed this weapon with him at some point in the past. Abilities *'Soul Conversion' - By using souls she gathered from her victims, she is able to create "extra lives", allowing her to revive herself after receiving an otherwise fatal attack. As a side effect, she absorbs some of the special properties of her victims, like being able to use a Megalo's Fear Inducement ability after killing Cerberus Wansard. *'Instant Regeneration' - Completely heals Kyoko's bodily injuries (and even damage to her clothes) instantly. However, it requires her to receive a severe injury for it to activate. *'Elemental Spells' - Kyoko has demonstrated that she is able to use fire-, wind- and lightning-element spells to a certain degree of mastery. *'Human Limiter Removal' - Because of her ability to heal back any damage she receives, Kyoko is able to perform higher degrees of magic that is otherwise dangerous (or even fatal) to most humans. In her battle against Eucliwood Hellscythe, she performed a barrage of destructive lightning magic that caused massive damage to her arms, a form of magic which is up to 500% of a normal Masou-Shoujo's maximum output. Trivia * Her appearance is similar to that of another character who appears alongside Eu, Haruna, and Seraphim in the show's promotional image. This caused some confusion which led some fans to think that the two characters were the same, and that Kyoko had died and was subsequently revived by Eu or someone else. It is later shown in episodes 5 and 7 that this is not the case, for that character is in fact the vampire ninja Yuki Yoshida/Mael Strom. * Though it may be hard to be able to discern, Kyoko appears twice in the opening sequence, specifically in the closing montage. She is shown first in her guise as a hospital patient, then right before the last image of the chainsaw in the ground, she is shown as her true self: a malevolent Masou-Shoujo, minus her signature twin tails. * Her current status is unknown following her defeat and retrieval by the King of the Night, for she does not appear in any of the following episodes. This contrasts with her role in the original light novel series, where she serves as a relatively frequent antagonist. She later reappears in season 2. Category:Characters Category:Masou Shoujo Category:Female